Competitors shut at each ends of NASCAR Cup Collection playoff standings

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A dramatic race at Michigan Worldwide Speedway over the weekend has meant that for the second consecutive week, the NASCAR Cup Collection playoff outlook has undergone a significant change — each atop the standings and on the all-important cutoff line because the sequence heads to Daytona Worldwide Speedway for Saturday evening’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick earned his second trophy of the yr. His dogged work within the No. 45 Toyota — together with a uncommon “off” day for a few his closest regular-season championship contenders — has thrust the 28-year-old Californian atop the standings for the primary time in his younger profession.

Solely two races stay to determine the regular-season champion and which 16 drivers will qualify for the playoffs. Reddick now holds a 10-point benefit over Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott (804) within the standings. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin (786) moved as much as third place — 28 factors again — due to an impressed ninth-place drive at Michigan regardless of an early race spin.

Hendrick’s Kyle Larson — who has led the championship a series-best 14 weeks on the season, together with the final two weeks and boasts a series-best 4 wins — dropped to fourth place (782), 32 factors behind Reddick after triggering a seven-car crash mid-race that parked him with a Thirty fourth-place end on Sunday.

All of it units up a decent, aggressive bid for that 15-point bonus paid to the regular- season champion — an enormous incentive that goes with that driver for every playoff spherical he advances.

“We’re going to go to Daytona and, hopefully, do not crash,” Reddick mentioned. “Final time we had been there, we gained the Duels (in February), so hoping to stroll away from Daytona with the factors lead. If we are able to try this, it should set us up actually good to shut it out in Darlington (on Sept. 1).”

Hamlin by far boasts one of the best Daytona file of the 4 drivers atop the standings. A 3-time Daytona 500 winner, he’s the one one amongst Reddick, Elliott and Larson to hoist a NASCAR Cup Collection trophy on the sport’s most iconic speedway.

Reddick has each a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Collection win (2015) and a NASCAR Xfinity Collection (2018-1) victory at Daytona. Elliott (2016, one) and Larson (2018, two) have Xfinity Collection wins on the large observe, however none amongst this threesome has gained a NASCAR Cup Collection race there.

Reddick’s greatest work is a runner-up in the summertime race in 2022. Elliott has a pair of runner-up finishes within the 2020 summer season 400-miler, then the next season-opening Daytona 500. Larson has by no means had a top-five end at Daytona. His greatest displaying is sixth place within the 2016 summer season race.

The tight competitors additionally may be very evident on the different finish of the playoff standings, with three drivers — Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s Chris Buescher, Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain and 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace — all safely inside the highest 16 at varied instances throughout Monday’s rain-delayed Michigan race.

Finally, Buescher — who’s the defending winner of Saturday evening’s Daytona race — fared greatest with a sixth-place end that not solely moved him up a place to fifteenth within the standings however gave him a better factors cushion (16 above the road).

Regardless of bringing out the ultimate warning of the race in the course of the first additional time, Chastain rallied again to a Twenty fifth-place end which was simply adequate to safe a tenuous single-point benefit over Wallace, whose No. 23 Toyota was dinged in two separate incidents not of his doing and completed twenty sixth.

Of those three preventing for that final playoff place — solely Buescher has a earlier NASCAR Cup Collection win at Daytona. Wallace has been very near a victory with back-to-back runner-up finishes within the 2021 summer season race and the 2022 Daytona 500. He has 5 top-five leads to 14 sequence begins. Chastain has by no means had a prime 5 in 12 races, however he did win a summer season Xfinity Collection race in 2019.

Busch Gentle Pole Qualifying for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 is Friday night at 5:05 p.m. ET (USA Community, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Chastain gained the pole place for final yr’s race.

–By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service. Particular to Discipline Stage Media.